


What About Bob?

by Dorksidefiker



Series: The Time Is All We've Lost [1]
Category: Transformers - All Media Types, Transformers: Prime, Transformers: Robots in Disguise (2015)
Genre: Gen, Less Than Legal Quasi-Military Maneuvers, MECH makes an appearance, Prequel to The Time Is All We've Lost
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-10-26
Updated: 2017-12-07
Packaged: 2019-01-23 14:37:16
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 2
Words: 1,349
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12509648
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Dorksidefiker/pseuds/Dorksidefiker
Summary: "I'm not Optimus Prime.""And I'm not twelve."It's a day of firsts for all of them.A prequel to The Time Is All We've Lost.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> I just wanted to explain how Sunny met Bob in this universe. Then things kinda spiraled a little bit out of control.

Sunstreaker clung to the open cargo door, watching the ground rushing past with undisguised interest. Knock Out hung close, talons digging into the side of the cargo plane. The wind buffeted them, and over the radio he could hear the humans complaining.

"Let her have her fun," Rafael chided. "It's the kid's first plane ride."

Knock Out allowed her a few moments more, then closed the cargo bay doors, almost smiling. There was something oddly amusing about the fact that his apprentice really _was_ the youngest sentient aboard by at least a decade. A 'kid' by any standard. "Alright, that's enough."

Sunstreaker didn't whine, but she shuffled back to her 'seat' -- a clear spot between a pair of battered jeeps -- with slumped shoulders. She pulled her legs up to her chassis. "Never let me have any fun."

"If you wanted _fun_ , you should have stayed in Iacon." Knock Out moved to the other end of the retrofitted cargo bay, to where the humans were strapped in.

Of the two dozen humans, Knock Out knew only two; Rafael and Ronni. The rest of Rafael's lab assistants had opted to remain behind, citing their status as non-combatants with no useful skills to bring to the operation, unlike Ronni and their own peculiar talents. The rest, so Knock Out had been told, were members of Dagmar's private security team.

Knock Out settled next to Rafael, studying the human out of sheer boredom. He seemed perfectly at ease amongst the hired guns, strapped into his seat and fiddling with a tablet. Like all the others, he had a helmet on and a breathing mask over his face. Ronni dozed in the seat beside him, having taken medication to, in their words 'keep me from fritzing out the navigation systems before we land.'

 _Did you know what you were making, Optimus?_ Knock Out wondered. How much of the Decepticon's final defeat could be credited to the fleshies they had dismissed as unimportant, as mere _pets_?

Even after they killed Hardshell.

After what MECH did to Breakdown.

_And here **I** am, helping them._

Primus clearly had a twisted sense of humor.

"Five minutes to the staging area," Rafael announced, reaching over to nudge Ronni awake. "Ready?"

"Not my first dance," Knock Out reminded him. Rafael let his gaze flick to Sunstreaker. "I'm confident in my apprentice's abilities," he added.

The rest of the ride passed in an easy quiet. There was clearly routine for the humans, and Knock Out recognized the patterns of activity well enough to follow; a few millennia of war had taught the medic everything he needed to know about a military operation. They were met by another dozen hired guns, and the two teams integrated seamlessly into one. They looked to a human female for orders, and she in turn consulted with Rafael, who dealt with her with ease.

"Sitrep?"

"No change since the last report, sir. If they know we're here, they're not showing it. They've got something big taking up all their attention."

"Mm. ETA on Miko?"

"No joy there. Tropical storm has her grounded. Scuttle the mission, sir?"

" _No_ ," Rafael said decisively. "If they've got something big, I want it. Knock Out?"

"We came all this way." Knock Out spread his talons, inspecting them with a little smirk. "It'd be a shame to waste the trip."


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Battle plans are made.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> [Looks like I'm not the only one who thinks Femme Sunny should totally be a thing!](http://medbutt.tumblr.com/post/131914276373/okay-but-wat-if-and-also) This is beautiful and y'all should go shower the artist with praise.

Rafael pulled up the blueprint of the MECH base, projecting the hologram for the mercenaries to see. He was especially proud of the clarity of the image; miniaturization tended to result in the image going fuzzy, but _this_ looked almost solid. The security team leader, a statuesque woman who only answered to Maharissa, focused entirely on laying out her plan of attack, but the rest of the team kept sneaking not at all subtle glances at Knock Out and Sunstreaker.

Rafael didn't blame them; Miko in the Apex Armor was impressive, but she really had _nothing_ on a Cybertronian. _Especially_ ones as flashy as Knock Out and his apprentice. Sunstreaker especially made a show of everything she did, well aware of her audience.

She'd confided to Rafael, when she'd begun painting the medbay, that it'd been one of the first things Knock Out had taught her to do.

_"You're always being watched, Apprentice,"_ she'd said, doing a remarkable imitation of Knock Out, complete with the swing of her hips. _" **Make an impression.** "_

"Computer systems are priority one!" Maharissa announced, her shoulders squared and her hands clasped behind her back. Rafael switched the view on the hologram each time she issued an assignment. "Anything we can't take with us, we put beyond use. See anything that looks funky, you take it or you wreck it." She inhaled deeply. "Ronni and Dr. Esquival, you already know, and we'll be going on Ronni's signal. Our other VIPs are Knock Out and Sunstreaker. Team Three, Team Four, you'll be their escorts, and you'll be operating under Nakadai rules! For those of you who're just joining us, that means stay _out_ of their way and don't get under foot, and I mean that _literally_! You go squish a lot easier than they do. Attack begins at 1900, dismissed!"

Rafael caught Knock Out casting his gaze towards the MECH facility, ignoring the humans that swarmed around him, getting in to position. Ronni was already perched on top of one of the Jeeps, slathering on sunblock. They wouldn't be going any further; no matter how useful Ronni's particular talents, he was a non-combatant asset, to be kept well behind the lines with their own cadre of body guards in case things went wahoonie shaped.

Knock Out caught him watching, bright red eyes switching from the MECH base to Rafael. "I won't hold back on them, fleshie," he warned, his voice a soft and dangerous purr. "I'm _not_ Optimus."

Rafael met his gaze coolly. The rifle slung across his back had never felt heavier. "And _I'm_ not twelve."

* * *

 

Sunstreaker was still getting used to the world, with all it's _muck_ and _squishiness_. The roads were alright, she supposed, but she longed for the endless, twisting, winding roads of Kaon, where she could just cut _loose_.

She'd thought Iacon was bad, but _this_ place, with all it's rules and Knock Out's insistence on secrecy and the damn organic _scrap_ -

::Ready, Apprentice?::

Sunstreaker revved her engine, startling the organics around her. She'd be picking grit out of her joins for _weeks_ when they got back to base, but it was _almost_ worth it to be _outside_. Knock Out practically had her on _lockdown_ with all his rules and all the grunt work he had her doing. _This_ was a lot closer to what she'd been _expecting_ to do when she's followed Knock Out across the space bridge.

She felt a shudder pass through her as Ronni's mind passed over her. The dark little human wasn't physically impressive by _any_ standard, but their mind was an absolutely _terrifying_ weapon, and Sunstreaker was glad that the human wasn't inclined to do anything except fiddle about with their video games and occasionally blow out all the electronics in a human base.

The humans were boiling out of their base like a disturbed hive of Insecticons. Knock Out was already charging in to the fray, drawing all the human attention away from Sunstreaker's point of attack.

There was something _awful_ about the way Knock Out tore into the humans, firing on them and sweeping them aside like they were nothing more than exceptionally small targets. It was the size, really; barely taller than a minicon and with none of the protective armor, they went _squish_ and _crunch_ with disturbing ease, leaking fluid everywhere as they flopped around.

Sunstreaker sped past them, battering through the doors and transforming, pulling her shock staff from her subspace.

Let Knock Out work out his demons on the humans outside. They were after the equipment _within_ , and the sooner they got it, the sooner she could start sluicing off the grit.

Some humans scattered before her, while others fired on her, and on a crude slab, and Insecticon tried to scream.


End file.
